The Final Move

The Final Move. The Boone Family in Missouri. , Opportunities for new land called many families westward. The Boone's were no exception to the lure of prosperity. In 1799, at the age of sixty-five, Daniel Boone, his wife Rebecca Bryan, and several children and family friends moved to Spanish owned Missouri. Daniel was given a land grant along the Missouri River, which would eventually be sold off to accommodate debts owned by Daniel Boone to patrons in Kentucky. While living in Missouri, Daniel and Rebecca Boone stayed primarily with their children. The old frontiersman spent his final days at the home of his youngest child, Nathan Boone. Surrounded by loved ones, Daniel Boone passed away in his son's four story limestone home in 1820, three weeks before his eighty-sixth birthday.

Nathan Boone was eighteen years of age when he and his new bride, Olive Vanbiber, joined his father in Missouri. Their limestone home was constructed in seven years, spanning 1803 to 1810. Olive Boone gave birth to fourteen children, most of which grew up in the large stone home. In 1837, seventeen years after his father's death, Nathan Boone moved his family to Ashgrove, Missouri. Nathan Boone was an instrumental part of Missouri history. He was a veteran of the War of 18 12, delegate to the 1820 Missouri Constitutional Convention, land surveyor, and business man.

Once in Missouri, the Spanish governor appointed Daniel Boone as Syndic and Commandant. This granted him judicial and military authority over the Femme Osage settlers. Daniel Boone was noted as a fair and honest judge. In keeping with his admiration of the wilderness, Daniel Boone often held court outdoors, underneath what became known as the Judgment Trees. One of the trees was located on Nathan Boone's property.